Cummins Canoe (A Stepvan Story)

[PlethoraOfGuns]

There is lots of sun at the beach! Soaking up all that power and cooking up some serious meals. Use the power while you got it right?


Picked up a waffle iron! Mmmmm, they hit the spot!


Enjoying the beach today. Letting the solar panels charge up the batteries so we can cook dinner.


Why not have fresh crab! Pressure cooked them with some rice and potatoes, of course we used Old Bay. Had to stop and reset at some point because we didn't have enough water in there to get the pressure cooking going good. Next time we'll have it dialed in better.


Finding other people that can drive this monstrosity. Also, having these headsets in the cab and in the back is awesome! So nice when you need order sandwiches or ice cream sundaes!


Speaking of ice cream, what better to end the day with then ice cream and a movie! We're finding that leaving the bed down and set up is the way to go. We rarely put it up into couch mode.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Things were going great until we noticed that everyday someone was spilling water on the floor.


Getting fancy with our cooking. Baking is now easy, as long as there is sun. Made some super awesome french toast casserole. As always, made enough extra to put in fridge for another day.


And we got a nice system of washing dishes while driving.


But, umm, that water on the floor was nobody spilling. Turns out the last week of the water pump kicking on randomly for one second every 20 minutes was actually a plumbing leak. Ripped the entire kitchen out, fixed the leaking hot water fitting, and proceeded to spend the next 2 days cleaning and drying. Worst part is that we had to drain 25 gallons of water! Water is way too precious on the road to just dump like that!


The plywood back there is kinda messed up. Very glad we sealed the backside and polyurethaned the front. I imagine it could have been a whole lot worse. Cleaned it with bleach and water. Hooked up both portable fans. Rigged up the air heater in a temporary fashion and ran all that through the night. This was good timing since it dipped down into the 40's that night and the heat felt good. First time using the air heat in a applicable way. This is all quite unfortunate and we're quite bummed. All from just a drip. Has anyone had such catastrophe before?

 

[almuric]

Assateague? Did you just use Flex Tape to fix it? Or JB Weld?

As someone who's still in the process of building his adventure vehicle, I'm gonna have a hard time not over-tightening every fitting after seeing this devastation.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Haha, yep, Assateague Island. Are you talking about the leak? It was fixed by tightening clamp on a hose and adding a second clamp, the lines that go to and from the water heater. At some point, everything leaked except for those Sharkbite fittings. I was skeptical at first, but dang it, these things are great! No signs of leaking from them. And very glad I used them instead of the crimp fittings. It would suck to have to redo all those crimp fittings I'd have to undo to rip all this out and then get new hose and fittings and redo it all. Easy as pie with the Sharkbites since they can easily be removed and reused. Paid for themselves twice over right here. Next time, everything is getting PEX and Sharkbite fittings.

 

[Farfrumwork]

Never that type of catastrophe in any Adv-vehicle of mine, but I keep my water simple (7ga containers, lashed down - just close the spout and keep it pointed up). Running water would be nice though...

I did have something similar occur in my house. The water line into the back of our fridge sprung a little drip, which must have been leaking for a few days before we saw it in front of the fridge. Water in the crawl space below, and damaged floor in the kitchen - good times. Doesn't take much water to cause a big PITA

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Yes, running water is nice. But it comes at a cost, literally. Next build I am incorporating all the plumbing not just in one spot, but inside a waterproof catchpan compartment!

 

[Todd n Natalie]

So are the headsets required to communicate while driving? Or was it just for fun?

 

[mrghostwalker]

Great project and even better pictures!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

So are the headsets required to communicate while driving? Or was it just for fun?

If you ever drive a step van at highway speeds, you will understand that headsets are not for show. But they are also kinda fun. Sounds like you're in a podcast the whole time.

Great project and even better pictures!

Thanks! Lots of work done, lots of work left to do...

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Oh geez, does anything not break? We are on a roll!


Got the kitchen back together. Figured we get the compost toilet finished. Mixed some coco coir and diatomaceous earth together to aid in the compost process. We have our doubts, we'll let you know how it goes.


We store the mix right behind the toilet. Wish it was on the side of the toilet so the toilet seat wasn't in the way, but this is just how it all worked out. Just need a scooper and we'll be good to go.


Somewhere mostly uninhabited northern Indiana, noticed loss of power, the boost was dropping, and the egt was rising. Pulled over to take a look.


Well, the repair welds on the turbocharger flange adapter held great. But Chinese steel is Chinese steel. Had this all sitting in the back of my head since we first had it repaired. Sometimes your nightmares come true. Had some broken bolts on the exhaust manifold too. Nothing a torch couldn't handle and replaced with stainless hardware.


Caught it in time before the turbocharger fell completely off again.


This ought to fix it! No more turbochargers falling off around here!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

So we were parked in some Minneapolis neighborhood, on a hill, between two cars. Went to leave and the clutch pedal goes right to the floor. Turns out, all the hydraulic fluid leaked out through a bad fitting. Determined to get where we were going, I man-handled the thing and got it going, even though the transmission took several large blows while I was trying to get out of that pickle. Hopefully the clutch is ok after that mess.


So here is our culprit. The line going into the slave cylinder should be straight. The metal on the hardline wore out from the roll pin. Could not get it to seal and not leak.


Also couldn't easily get replacement hard lines, so we came up with our own setup with some stainless steel line.


Was able to get back on the road and found a nice stream to pump out some water and into our storage tanks. We use the hot tub pump under the passenger seat to suck water out of stream. Works pretty good.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Oh boy, the clutch did not enjoy what I did to it back in Minneapolis...


So the girls have never read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. So we spent the day floating down the Mississippi in our "raft" and me telling them all about Mark Twain's American classic..


And then we were off to much more desolate places! Crossing the country without taking the interstates is the way to go!


But then we broke down again. This time in the middle of nowhere. Van wouldn't go into any gear. Clutch hydraulics worked fine, shift fork moves, just a faint grinding coming from the transmission. We think to ourselves, what could it be now?


So the van is now immobile. Took the top cover off of the transmission and confirmed that all that was fine. We're tired, so we sit on the roof and watch an approaching storm roll through.


The next day we came up with a plan to lower the 200+ pound cast iron transmission with some chain anchored to the corner ceiling supports in the cab, and a come-along down to some straps around the transmission. Worked super great and the dirt cushioned the transmissions fall!


Now that the clutch is all apart, the first thing I notice is when I grabbed the center hub by the splines on the clutch plate, it jingles and jangles all around. That is not normal. If you look carefully, you can see the sides of the hub up against the springs. The faint grinding noises was actually the hub plate riding against the springs. This thing is done for. I'm pretty sure I damaged it back in Minneapolis when the clutch hydraulic line broke and I started it in reverse/hammered it home and it bucked all over the place a few times. Oh well, live and learn.


So now we had to get a replacement. Being in the middle of nowhere meant we had to load up our backpacks and spend the day hiking some railroad tracks which did take us to the nearest town with an autoparts store. Luckily they had a replacement clutch kit.


Made it back to the rig just before dark. The next day I pretended to know what I was doing and got the new clutch in. Our hoist system was perfect, never had a transmission go back in so easily! This might be my new preferred method of transmission removal.


I wasn't the only one working. This was a two person job! But now we're good to go and back on the road. What else could go wrong?

 

[iggi]

Oh the adventures!
Not sure if it would apply to you but when the clutch slave cylinder went on my old landcruiser the gearing was low enough I could start it in gear. Better than slam shifting it.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

The adventures never end! In Minneapolis, I was parked on side of road on a hill between two cars. Had no hydraulics for clutch, had a hard time getting it orientated to do a 1st gear no clutch start. Had to bump it backwards in reverse, uphill, a few times before I hit the car behind me in order to get enough clearance to swing it forward and to the left to get into the road to do the start. Now, the clutch completely separated, so no matter what, the transmission and engine would never connect. We have the worst luck!

 

[ITTOG]

These will be great memories twenty years from now. Good job rolling with the punches and making the best of it.

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